Model Question Paper

Course: Literary Theory and Criticism

1. Read the following sentence:
“We have four distinct names ('spring', 'summer', etc.), but actually the year runs
continuously without any breaks or decisive changes. It isn't, in reality, divided into
four. Why not have six seasons, or eight? What is this an example of?"
a. Language as shaping the world
b. Language as a reflection of the natural world
c. Language as having no influence on the world
d. Language constituting the world

2. What are the two elements that Chicago School look for in a literary text?
a. Author and Reader
b. Thought and Sense
c. Form and Content
d. Style and Language
3. Which of the following becomes the central problem of philosophy for the
Structuralist school?
a. Meaning
b. Reference
c. Language
d. Sense

4. Which of the following is the basic presupposition of the structuralist school?

a. Things exist in isolation
b. Things do not exist in isolation but as part of larger structures
c. Things exist in structures but those structures have no influence on things
d. Things must be understood in isolation

5. Which classical Greek story does Levi Strauss structurally analyze to demonstrate his
theory of structural anthropology?
a. Medea
b. Oedipus Rex
c. Antigone
d. Prometheus Bound

6. Which anthropologist attempted to bridge the gap between anthropology and

structuralism by uniting the two to analyze cultures?
a. Roland Barthes
b. Claude Levi Strauss
c. Jacques Lacan
d. Sigmund Freud
7. Who can live in contradiction with courage according to Roland Barthes in his
Pleasures of the Text?
a. The Philosopher
b. The Author
c. The Critic
d. The Reader

8. Which figure emerges as the primary agent of meaning in post-structuralist theory?

a. The Academic
b. The Reader
c. The Critic
d. The Philosopher

9. The death of the author leads to the birth of the what according to Barthes?
a. The Birth of the Public
b. The Birth of the Critic
c. The Birth of the Reader
d. The Birth of the Thinker

10. What is a deconstructive reading of literature interested in?

a. In finding similarities
b. In finding the underlying unity of a text
c. In finding the hidden layer of contradictions and paradoxes
d. In finding the concrete wholeness of a text

11. Which of the following is not a kind of contradiction found in literary texts?
a. Textual
b. Verbal
c. Philosophical
d. Linguistic

12. How do philosophers view literature and literary language?

a. As Science
b. As Play
c. As Philosophical
d. As Sociological Input

13. Which of the following is not an emerging field of study in Cultural Studies?
a. Children's Literature
b. Cityscapes
c. Soundscapes
d. Appreciation of Cultures
14. What does the study of cyberscapes in Cultural Studies involve?
a. Study of cybersecurity and ethical hacking
b. Study of coding and computer science
c. Study of cyber architecture
d. Study of Hypertext poetry, Slam poetry, Twitterature, Social media ,
video/virtual gaming, OTT , Vlogging and Blogging

15. What does the Cultural Studies Critic invest in?

a. In suspicion
b. In tradition
c. In culture
d. In the future

16. Which of the following is not a prerequisite of being a cultural critic?

a. Limited Reading
b. Diverse Reading
c. Critical Reflection
d. Vigilant Observation

17. Who wrote the book Cultural Poetics: The Circulation of Social Energy?
a. Michel Foucault
b. Stephen Greenblatt
c. Gary Gutting
d. Edward Said

18. Which of the following is not a characteristic of Cultural Studies?

a. Understanding Culture in its complex forms
b. Political Criticism
c. Exposing relations of power
d. Celebrating our lost cultures and traditions

19. What is the meaning of the concept "over-determination"?

a. A single effect is determined by multiple causes
b. Causes have no influence over effects
c. Effects determine the Cause
d. A single effect is determined by an equally single cause

20. Which of the following is not designated by the term "Post-Colonial"?

a. Intellectual Activity
b. Political Movement
c. Chronological Moment
d. A Colonial Academic Discipline
21. What kind of temporality does post-coloniality possess?
a. Problematic
b. Linear
c. Unproblematic
d. Simple

22. Which of the following terms is synonymous with Postcolonialism?

a. Colonialism
b. Decolonization
c. Imperialism
d. Expansionism

23. Which of the following is the right matching of authors with their books?
a. In Other Worlds- Gayatri Spivak
b. In Other Worlds- Edward Said
c. In Other Worlds- Bill Ashcroft
d. In Other Worlds- Homi Bhabha

24. Which of the following is the right matching of authors with their books?
a. Nation and Narration- Edward Said
b. Nation and Narration- Bill Ashcroft
c. Nation and Narration- Homi Bhabha
d. Nation and Narration- Gayatri Spivak

25. Who first used the term ecofeminism?

a. Carolyn Merchant
b. Françoise d’Eaubonne
c. Dominique Palmer
d. Ruth Vanita

26. Whose theories of gender performativity significantly influenced the development

and emergence of gender studies as an academic field?
a. Vandana Shiva
b. Ruth Vanita
c. Erica Cirino
d. Judith Butler

27. Which of the following thinkers merges decoloniality, feminism and

environmentalism in their theory of feminism?
a. Carolyn Merchant
b. Vandana Shiva
c. Ruth Vanita
d. Erica Cirino
28. Which of the following thinkers is not associated with eco-feminism?
a. Vandana Shiva
b. Judith Butler
c. Carolyn Merchant
d. Dominique Palmer

29. Which of the following movies is not a postmodern movie?

a. The Matrix
b. Pulp Fiction
c. Blade Runner
d. Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times

30. Which of the following movements or methods is not associated with

postmodernism?
a. Schizoanalysis
b. Deconstruction
c. Historicism
d. Historical Materialism